News

On 25 June the Stirling Project were in attendance at the second Godmanchester Bomber Command Veterans Day arranged byRoger Leivers. We had the opportunity to meet both veterans and enthusiasts and prompt the project’s activities. We were also able to present to Donald Jeffs a section of MacRobert’s Reply in which he a flown and a Stirling Mug.

Painting of the flight deck seat rails and control columns is nearing completion. The attached pics show the pilots’ seats and throttle box trial fit assembly. We also recently took deliver of some of the many required control cable pulleys, these mainly for the trim/fuel system runs in the cockpit coupe.

The pilots’ seat harness adjustment mechanism took a step further recently with the production of some of the components that make up these items. The picture shows the mounting blocks, spring sleeves and spring retaining blanks.

New Year has started with more steady progress, all 4 throttle box cam sets now fitted, thanks to Cambridge Precision for their manufacture. Kev’s professional skills came to the fore by assembly of the base for the cockpit coupe jig and the 2nd Pilot’s rudder pedal set came a step closer to assembly.

Saturday 19 December saw the initial assembly of the first set of rudder pedals.

Steady progress with the Throttle Box build includes addition of Friction Device Star Wheel produced by Laser Prototypes Europe Ltd of Belfast. This is a Alumid resin aluminium composite produced from an original drawing.

Also fitted are the throttle lever cam supports which have been machined from solid by Cambridge Precision Ltd of St Neots Cambridgeshire, these were yet another complex component part of the throttle box which required much thought in their production.

Dear all

Some more progress to report:

Thanks to SAPA Profiles UK, who kindly donated the time and materials, we now have sufficient lengths of special extrusion for the outer bomb bay keel structure. These are aysmmetrical ‘U’ section channel which attaches to the bottom of the bomb frames and which the outer bomb doors are attached. These are an integral part of the bomb bay structure without which we cannot proceed to the build stage.

We’ve just had the trim box assembly modelled up using original drawings as the basis. The results are below and we will be getting the individual components 3D printed ready for casting.

Additionally, the Project has achieved a major milestone in that we have drawn up and fabricated a prototype bomb bay frame as a proof of concept; this is our first piece of fuselage structure proper! With the assistance of Marshall ADG (Land Systems), the Project has secured the use of a laser cutting facility which will enable us to accurately produce components rapidly and will significantly cut down on the time taken to fabricate such components and work is progressing to design the required fuselage build jig which will be a significant investment for the Charity. Below are some photos of the seat beam assembly, the prototype bomb frame and the draft fuselage jig design.

A quick update to show some parts from LK488 and EE975 that have been donated to the Project by Ian Carter. Some interesting items which we’ve identified are the throttle box cams, the remains of an elevator trim tab and the casting from the Flight Engineers fuel valve mounted at the forward spar. The latter is slightly damaged but certainly good enough to either repair or make good enough to use as a pattern.